Okay, I probably need to explain that. Tiny little weirdo cars are my dream, and I often imagine driving an Isetta or a Nissan Figaro or even a Citröen 2CV…
But I live in Wisconsin, where the streets are clear of snow and road salt for only half the year. Annnnd, we live at the bottom of a big hill. On a dead end street. That the city plows days after they take care of Actual Streets. Most of the folks on our street own something heavy and AWD.
Even my '01 Insight, at 1800 lbs, has trouble getting up the street after any snowfall. My dream car would be struggling…
Though I could probably sew a backpack for the Isetta and pack it out…
Hey, it’s almost Isetta season up here. If you see a Smart car, you can put an Isetta on the road. I have a Milwaukee pal with an Isetta and a tiny Riley Elf.
Two cars today. The first was a 2nd generation Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, probabaly around a 75 or so. It was black with no other markings on the outside, I think it had just been repainted.
The second was a 1st generation Mazda Miata with the flip up headlights. But the owner put Ferrari badges on it for some twisted reason. Then he proceeded to drive like a complete asshat, cutting people off, running red lights, and using the left turn lane to sneak past the cars in front of him. At one point he swung right at a light to try and sneak past cars only to end up at the start of the divided bike lane, so he just cut back into traffic after flipping me off.
A white Mazda Cosmo. I am in car lust. This baby has a twin rotary engine and there are only 4 of them known to be in the U.S.A. And possibly for sale to someone with a small fortune as I saw on display at a dealership.
And of course Jay Leno has one of them. (I’m pretty sure anytime someone says “there are only [small number] of [a particular car] known to exist”, there’s about a 99% probability one of them belongs to Jay Leno.)
That threw me for a loop for a couple of seconds. We used to have a couple of people racing the original Elvas at our track. And a new one. I forgot that the new ones are called Elva as we just refer to it as “the McLaren”. Lovely car.
Yeah, it would have made this thread even with a windshield - it was a spectacular machine. I’m glad I didn’t know the price when I passed it as I’d have been even more nervous.
Yesterday afternoon I saw a Trabant in Montreal. I think that it was a 601 Deluxe limousine. I have subsequently found online that there are a few Trabants in Montreal.
This morning I saw a 1933 or 34 Ford sedan. Its appearance was mostly stock except for the bright red paint job which I doubt was the original color, but I kind of suspect it was at least mildly restomodded.
Then later a restored first generation International Scout drove past my house.
Same day I saw the Sun Bug I spotted what I think was a beautifully restored Datsun B210 or B310 in traffic. I’m sure of the make since I could read the “Datsun” badge, but I’m not very familiar with that car for a detailed identification. It was a hatchback.
A red Pontiac TransAm, 1979-1981. I like that it had the Rallye II wheels rather than the honeycomb ones. As it was behind me I couldn’t tell what exact year it was or which engine it had and at the stop light I couldn’t get close enough to see it better before I had to turn. I’d have liked to stop and talk to the owner about it.
It was behind me right as I exited my neighborhood so maybe I’ll see it again.
When I got to the food store parking lot there was a late 60s to mid 70s VW Beetle there. Light blue but the paint was rough.
It’s springtime in Minnesota and all the convertibles and sports cars are out. There’s been a veritable parade of beauties coming out of the car wash detailing center near me. Street rods, motorcycles and our local Slingshot have been parading around. The local Porsche club had their first meet-up last weekend. Plenty of eye candy. Still haven’t spotted the Lotus yet.
